No refuge could save the hireling and slave from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave....
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
I haven't been sleeping the greatest lately because I was unlucky enough to catch Covid, even though I'm vaxxed and had my second booster just a month ago I still felt like total shit for a while. So anyway, last night I was searching Netflix for something to watch and came upon "Who We Are - A Chronicle of Racism in America" by civil rights lawyer Jeffery Robinson.
I thought I was fairly well versed in American History, but HOLY SHIT did I learn a lot.
I'd heard bits and pieces about the 3rd verse of the Star Spangled Banner's racist undertones, but DAMN, when broken down in detail and looked at in the context of Francis Scott Key being a wealthy slaveowner it's an epiphany. Key had just witnessed a battle in 1815 in which escaped slaves were fighting alongside the British in the hopes of ensuring their freedom, he was bitter that these escaped slaves dared to fight against their former masters and he was celebrating the killing of these people. If we were a decent nation we'd totally disavow that damned song.
https://soapboxie.com/activism/The-Third-Verse-of-The-Star-Spangled-Banner
And here's something I'd never known - During the Civil War the mayor of New York proposed that the city leave the United States because it's businesses, and by extension the city itself, depended so heavily on revenue from the cotton produced by slave labor in the south.
Anyway, now I REALLY understand why the GQP is afraid of teaching this part of history. If people more fully understood our past they'd be totally ashamed of what we once were as a nation and demand that we distance ourselves from that former version of us.
If you get a chance to watch "Who We Are - A Chronicle of Racism in America" you'll definitely learn a lot.
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